Breene, K F - Growing Pains 01 Page 7

  “Hmmmm?”

  Sean’s face angled down to hers, wondering if she understood.

  Oh, she understood alright. She was about to go down the wrong road if he kept standing there, that’s what she understood. She didn’t need to add sexual harassment to her list of accolades.

  “Yup, all good here. No problem. Please step away.”

  With a confused chuckle, Sean did exactly that, eating her alive with his intense gaze.

  Shaking her head, reaching for control, she reached for the mouse as she cleared her throat. “Do you have a pen and notepaper? I’d like to take some notes. Me memory no so good.”

  Sean chuckled. “Sure.”

  “Jeez, you get all the nice office stuff,” Krista noticed through a foggy head. “I get crappy plastic pens with no grip, a crappy mouse, a used, dirty keyboard—well, until it was replaced…”

  “Replaced?”

  “Oh, yeah. I guess the main-cheese in IT thought he’d do me a favor. Not that I’m complaining.”

  “Jacob?”

  “The one and only. I think Research freaks him out, though. He hasn’t come back, thank God. I only need so much leering in my lifetime.”

  Sean chuckled again. “It’s who you know, though sometimes the cost isn’t worth the end result.”

  He had that right.

  He paused for a minute before he moved to the visitor chairs facing the desk. “Are you wearing a new scent?”

  “What?”

  “Your perfume. New?”

  “Oh, yeah. My friend Kate gave it to me. Well, not true. She left it at my house and I failed to return it.”

  “Finders keepers.”

  She laughed. “Exactly.”

  When the slide show came up she had a good look. The art portion wasn’t all that exciting, but looked way different than her presentation. The colors, for starters, clashed with her colors. They looked like two different presentations altogether. If what she was looking at was set in stone, she needed to redo her whole design format.

  That would mean she wasted a ton of time on this! It was short-sighted on Sean’s part to wait this long before letting her know.

  “Is this what you’re going with? Final, final?” she asked, irritation seeping back into her voice.

  Sean sat in the visitor chair, eyes glued to her face. “Yes. There might be one or two changes, but they would be minimal.”

  “Just a curiosity, has Mr. Montgomery seen this?”

  Sean’s head tilted. “No. Why would he?”

  “To check it against my stuff?”

  He shook his head, clearly not understanding what she was rambling about. It seemed like no one in the company cared about efficiency. Everyone worked independently of each other, thus making the project roll around in circles. It affronted Krista’s organized nature.

  She shrugged and let it go. She was too new to raise those kinds of questions to the top salesman. She also doubted Mr. Montgomery would care about the work of other departments. His personality clashed, why shouldn’t his colors?

  “Okay, got it.” She leaned forward with the intent to get up, but her butt had fallen in love with soft, supple leather. She couldn’t stop herself from leaning back, instead.

  Sean, still watching her intently—here’s another word, staring—took her cue and settled a little more firmly in his own, much less comfortable, chair.

  “Sorry.” She sighed, wiggling her butt. “It’s just… this freaking chair has a hold on me and doesn’t want to let go.”

  “Then I’m jealous of the chair,” Sean whispered.

  The words wound their way through the air like silk, curling under her skin, stroking her in all the right places. He sounded so sincere. As a woman listening to a man she found startlingly attractive, she wanted to believe.

  Like Theresa believed. Like the Boob Market from a moment ago believed.

  Krista was out of the chair as if on springs, climbing over the garbage can like an explorer running from a raging elephant. She didn’t even care about the gossip end of it anymore. She was more concerned with not falling for that old bullshit. She was better than that. She deserved better.

  “Krista…” Sean stood quickly, partially blocking her way.

  “Excusez-moi.” She didn’t meet his eyes. Instead she drank in the sight of his large expanse of shoulder. The air was stuffed with unsaid words as he slowly stepped aside.

  “Your mug,” he said softly. He sounded forlorn. He sounded like he had been unfairly tried; guilty until proven innocent.

  Yeah right, dude. You own the world but you’re oppressed? Such a douche.

  Her mug, though, was serious business. In a twirl of locomotion, she snatched her mug off the desk, but didn’t account for her shaky grip. It jumped ship and fell toward the floor.

  “Oh God no! I am such a complete moron!”

  She dove head first after it, already having bruised half her face, and now not caring if the other side matched or not. She could not break another lucky mug. Not two in the same job. It would be doomsday for sure.

  In a struggle of life-and-death, the mug bounced once, spilled its contents, and then came to a rest under Sean’s desk in one piece. She sighed hugely in relief, her head and shoulders uncomfortably wedged between wood and chair.

  My mugs try to commit suicide in Sean’s presence. Don’t think I don’t notice!

  “Crap, Sean, I’m so sorry! Let me clean it up.”

  “No, no, it’s fine. Really Krista…” Sean was trying not to laugh. He was also looking at her in bewildered shock.

  Apparently he didn’t believe her when she said her mug was important. If he did, he would have known that of course she would dive under the desk to save it! Small price to pay for job longevity.

  He put a large, warm hand on her shoulder to prevent her sprinting out of the office in search of paper towels. The shock of it was so intense she stopped moving in wonder. She felt a zing of electric current slide up and down the middle of her body, tingling off her rib cage, sizzling down her thighs, and alighting all her pleasure sensors one at a time as if they were light switches being turned on. It was like touching a live wire, but instead of being painfully electrocuted, she was injected with adrenaline.

  She did look up then. His eyes were soft with immeasurable depth. Looking into them was looking to the center of his soul. He returned her look, deeply. Wanting the connection. Wanting to be close to her.

  He brought his hand up, needing to touch her. Needing to know this intimacy was shared. But the horror, surely represented on her face, stilled his movement. She didn’t want this. She couldn’t want it. She didn’t want to take a chance and be let down, because he would let her down. She didn’t need Jim’s example to know that, she had proof all around the company.

  “I’ll clean it up. Let me grab your mug,” Sean said softly, ruffling her hair with his breath.

  She wanted to give in. Right then, she wanted to stop being on the defensive. But if one didn’t learn from the past, one was a nincompoop. It was too soon to get hurt again.

  Thankfully, he was moving away, allowing her a second to regroup.

  “Got it!” she said, holding up her coffee-stained arm with a mug attached to the end. “It’s okay.”

  Sean was shaking his head sadly. Quietly he said, “You and that mug.”

  “Yeah, well, we all have our crutch.”

  “Yes we do.”

  “Sorry again. I have to go.” She nearly ran out of the office.

  Sean let her go.

  Chapter Five

  Krista woke up with a jolt. Today was the day. She was unprepared!

  No she wasn’t. She was prepared. She could do this.

  She got out of bed two seconds before her alarm clock blared. Lunging for it, she slapped it off and straightened up.

  “I can do this today.”

  She was answered with the sound of rolling waves. Good enough.

  She took special care with getting dressed
. She applied makeup and did her hair. It sounded like a routine, but for the past few months she had barely bothered. It wasn’t the thing to be all made-up when you went to work anymore, just like it wasn’t the thing for guys to shave every day. The trend was laziness, and Krista was onboard.

  Except for today. Today was special. She had people to impress today. She would give her presentation!

  “Oh God, I’m nervous!” Krista took a second away from liquid eyeliner to hold her stomach and take a breath.

  “Krista, are you almost done?”

  Ben was huddled outside the door in X-Men pajamas, squeezing himself for warmth with dark circles under his eyes.

  “What are you doing up so early?”

  “I have a meeting with my group before class. I have to get the bus all the way to Fisherman’s Wharf area.”

  “Oh, that sucks. Uh, I am nearly done. Can you wait ten minutes?”

  “’Kay.” Ben trudged back to his room.

  Krista finished up and got on her way. The meeting wasn’t until 10 o’clock, so she wasn’t worried about Muni running late. In the office she put all her stuff down, stowed her laptop so if someone were brave enough to enter Research, they wouldn’t steal it, and got her mug. Coffee, then practice, then show time!

  Butterflies had turned carnivorous. They were eating her stomach lining!

  Sean was absent, which was great since she hadn’t seen him since that day in his office, so she filled up her cup and headed to the creamer station. She thought she might use extra cream and sugar for a little kick.

  “Good morning.” The absence had been too good to be true. Sean sauntered in, looking confident, looking like he hadn’t a care in the world. He probably didn’t. He’d done so many presentations they were probably old news.

  “Mernin,” Krista replied.

  “I haven’t seen you in a while.”

  “Yeah, I’ve been grabbing some Peet’s on the way in. Muni has been spotty lately.”

  “Ignoring your lucky mug? I’m surprised.” His statement was easygoing and friendly, but underneath, if she wasn’t mistaken, there was an edge of wariness.

  “Oh no, I pour the coffee into my mug when I get in. It sees plenty of action.”

  Sean nodded, not quite laughing. She could feel his eyes focused on her like a spotlight. She turned into the fixed gaze.

  “Are you ready for today?” he asked.

  “Yes, I am completely prepared and ready to go.” She felt formal, she sounded formal, and she hoped that when the presentation came around, she portrayed formal.

  “Ready to go, huh?” Sean repeated with a hint of animalistic hunger.

  One thing she didn’t need today was this old song-and-dance. She excused herself and headed out. He had nothing to offer her when he was pulling womanizer.

  “Krista.”

  She closed her eyes against the soft lick on the inside of her brain. No matter how much she distanced him, he still had an effect on her. It was probably the most frustrating thing about him.

  He was looking at her with a focused, piercing gaze. It was like he suddenly switched off the bullshit and a machine stepped in. There was no angle now, especially not a faux-romance one. “I wasn’t kidding when I said this was a big account. A very important account. To me. So if you need anything, any help or even just a second opinion to springboard some ideas, please call me this morning without hesitation.”

  He sounded normal. And helpful. And polite. His voice was velvet with a hint of deep gravel, exfoliating her nerves, but in a good way. It made her feel more confident. Less alone.

  “I am pretty set, Sean, but thanks.”

  “Anything at all, Krista, I’m here, okay? I know you’re inexperienced, but you have a team supporting you today, so we’ll catch you if you stutter. Don’t be nervous.”

  Krista took a big breath and smiled. “Good pep talk, coach. I needed that.”

  Sean smiled, too. “I could tell.”

  Back at her desk, Krista looked at her materials. She went over her slides again. She reviewed and reviewed until she was ready. More than ready. She was eager.

  That’s going a bit far.

  Ready. She was ready.

  When it was time, she grabbed her laptop, her lucky mug, and headed up to conference room C. The smallest one. Why Sean, the best salesman, was heading a sales pitch for a tiny, weak company, when everyone important—including the rest of Research—was working on Dell, Krista couldn’t even guess. It probably had something to do with the Cosmos laughing at her.

  Regardless, it was experience and that’s what she needed.

  Up at the conference room, with weak legs and a tingling, nearly churning stomach, she poked her head in the door. Sean was standing with two women and a man, reviewing pictures on a large billboard.

  “Can I help you?”

  Krista jumped and spilled the contents in her mug. Luckily, it was water. She had been worried about being too wired with coffee so she switched it up.

  She turned as she stepped into the room. A smallish man wearing an off-the-rack suit, probably from the Men’s Warehouse, was addressing her. He had gelled hair, a wide, flat nose, a goatee, and a sparkling, giant gold watch. Krista wondered if he was a car salesman before this job.

  “I’m Research. Krista, I mean. From Research. I’m supposed to be here.”

  Lame.

  “Krista…” It was Sean. She turned to him gratefully. The intensity of the car salesman’s gaze was disconcerting. “Just the person I was looking for. Would you mind walking me through what you plan to go over?”

  “Uh…” She glanced back at the other salesman, wondering if she should say something. He quickly shifted his gaze from her butt to her face.

  That question answered, Krista shuffled into the room quickly. Sean stepped behind her, cutting off the eye-line of the other yahoo. It was a bad start and certainly not the professionalism she expected.

  Letting it drift away, she set up her computer at a far table, butt to the wall, before looking back up at Sean. She could tell her mouth was a thin line of disapproval, but she was angry and disgusted, so there wasn’t much to be done.

  “Your slides?” Sean prompted, looking fixedly into her eyes.

  Krista cleared her throat and tucked a flyaway strand of hair behind her ear. “I thought you approved the slides?”

  “I did, yes. The slides were artfully done. I was just wondering about your delivery?”

  Krista swallowed nervously, hesitating to make sure her voice would stay steady and unaffected. He took the pause for suspicion.

  Smoothly, he said, “I just want to make sure we are all presenting as a team. I’ve already talked with everyone else, and I want to be the glue between your faction and the art people. It makes for a more cohesive presentation, don’t you think?”

  God she was inexperienced, and she was doing a poor job of hiding it. She felt like she was about to throw up, but she nodded as if trying to say, Yes, of course, that sounds about right. “Oh, sure.”

  She angled her laptop toward him and stepped to the right, allowing him to step closer and view the screen. She opened up the presentation and put it on slide show mode. Before she could begin, he said, “You changed some of the colors.”

  He scooted in closer, hitting her with those vivid, sparkling eyes, so confident, a question in his look. Krista’s nervousness combined with butterflies at his proximity quickly derailed her already fragile concentration.

  “Would you like to sit on my lap?” she blurted.

  “Oh. Excuse me.” He took a half-step away with a devilishly handsome grin, swirling his unique scent around her head.

  It was a smell you couldn’t buy. He smelled like the beach at sunset on a mild summer day. A proper beach. With beautiful people and cresting waves. A Hawaiian beach, maybe. Or Mexico. Somewhere warm and lovely. Get her a Mai Tai and a beach chair and she was home.

  She distractedly waved her hand in front of her face to clear the a
ir. She needed fresh air.

  “Not much I can do about the stink,” Sean said casually.

  She could feel a smile working its way up her face as she looked at him with wide eyes. “Well, we can’t all be perfect.” She couldn’t help but laugh.

  He laughed with her and leaned a little more comfortably against the table.

  “Okay.” She sighed. Then flinched.

  “You okay?”

  “Oh. Yeah. Mr. Montgomery has a ba—uh, habit of sighing all the time. For some reason I’ve picked it up, but my friend told me she’d give me a Thump Bird the next time she caught me doing it, so I’ve been trying to stop.”

  “I noticed that about him. It drives John crazy. What’s a Thump Bird?”

  Krista’s face went red. “Oh, it’s a…well…”

  She looked around the room, making sure no one was watching. When she saw that they were all engrossed in poster boards or idle chit-chat, she touched her middle finger to her thumb like she was doing an “A-OK” sign gesture, but with her middle finger. The other fingers were out as straight as possible. She made like her hand was a bird, flying, her fingers wings, bobbing as if in the air. She lost her nerve before she made the traditional Thump Bird sound, and then collapsed in a fit of giggles.

  “I can’t do it. If you ever meet Jasmine have her show you. Eventually you get flicked in the head. It doesn’t hurt per se, but she does it when you least expect it. You sit there wondering what that weird sound is… then bang--Thump Bird.”

  Sean was looking at her with a lopsided smile. It was as if he couldn’t believe she could be so silly, and the realization made him wonder if she was an alien.

  She regained her composure immediately. “Anyway, strange anecdotes aside…” She waited for him to shift back toward the computer. When it didn’t happen, she looked up to see what the holdup was.

  Turned out it was her. He was studying her, his face intent, hunger evident in his eyes, but not the kind she usually saw. This time it was a softer craving. It wasn’t sexually based. It was something else…

  Her head filled with buzzing. She nearly picked up her pen, treated it like a stake, and stabbed him in the chest. It would end this slow torture once and for all.